Potential Cancer Drug Derived from Rainforest

A potential cancer drug developed from an Australian rainforest plant is set to progress to human trials after fighting off inoperable tumors in pets, the company behind it said Monday.

Queensland firm QBiotics Ltd said its drug EBC-46, derived from the seeds of a tropical rainforest shrub, was ready to be tested on humans after it successfully treated solid tumors in more than 100 dogs, cats and horses.

Gordon said the results so far indicated the drug could work to counter a range of malignant growths, such as skin cancers, head and neck cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

She said the drug works like a detonator inside tumors, prompting inactive beneficial white cells to begin to fight and destroy the cancer.

The company spent six years developing the drug since the previously unknown molecule in the native Australian plant blushwood was discovered, and hoped to raise enough funds to begin human trials in 2011.

Gordon said the compound proved the value of retaining Australia's tropical rainforests.

"The world's rainforests are an amazing biological resource which we need to conserve and cherish," she said in a statement.

"Not only may they hold the secret to many new drugs, they are the home of more than half of all other species with which we share the planet."

The Cancer Council Australia sounded a note of caution on the development and said the company had not yet published its research.

"We have yet to see the results of this research published in a scientific journal, where they would be subject to independent scientific scrutiny, which is useful in determining the rigor of the research," chief executive Ian Olver said in a statement.

"While it is encouraging to see success in animals, this has not been a good predictor of success in humans," Professor Olver said.